Saturday, February 18, 2012

Wapta Icefield - Bow to Yoho Traverse | Mont des Poilus

Feb. 11 to 12 completed a modified Bow - Yoho traverse with an ascent of Mont des Poilus with TJ and JW. We started at Bow Lake, crossed the wapta and camped at the base of des Poilus, 7 hrs car to camp.

Solid conditions so we opted to go unroped all day. 
We enjoyed mostly blue bird skies. 

Sunday, we awoke to heavy snow and strong winds. Missed out on views, but our run back to camp (about 500m vertical) had awesome snow conditions; we were 3 hours camp to summit return. 



Headed out via Waterfall Valley to Takakkaw Falls. We meant to avoid coming over the Twin Falls cliff band, but in the end we decided to rap. From Twin Falls we found the summer trail and then pickup a well packed skier trail at Laughing Falls (Little Yoho exit).


From the bivy site out we were about 8 hours; 5 hours camp to Takakkaw Falls via Waterfall Valley and Marpole Lake and about 2.5 hours Takakkaw Falls to car. Awesome trip!!!